Telecom Italia (TI) has decided not to proceed with an offer from Orascom Telecom founder Naguib Sawiris to acquire a stake in the operator.

“Concerning the interest by Mr. Naguib Sawiris to invest in Telecom Italia, following the evaluations carried out the Board has decided not to proceed further,” noted a statement from TI.

A Bloomberg report in November suggested that Sawiris was looking to invest more than EUR2 billion in Telecom Italia.

The other issues discussed at a board meeting yesterday were related to a possible spinoff of the fixed-line copper-wire network and the sale of the company’s broadcasting unit, Telecom Italia Media.

TI said it is evaluating two binding offers received in the past days for its media unit and will try “to negotiate better conditions in order to present the board with final binding offers.” Reports suggest the two offers came from advertising company Cairo Communications SpA and private-equity funds Clessidra and Equinox.

No mention was made by TI about a decision on whether to make a bid for Vivendi’s Brazilian broadband unit GVT.